Together, We'll Survive
by Acyrotin
Summary: Two hunters, both brothers, find day-to-day survival to be difficult when one is handicapped with the inability to hunt. They also find that it's so much harder when your mind is elsewhere...HunterOCxHunterOC Incest/Slash
1. Chapter 1

Author's Notes: I will mention that I have never played the Left 4 Dead game, or it's sequel. I only go by what I've watched on Youtube and what I've read.

This will inevitably contain gore, violence, swearing, and eventually some shameless incestuous zombie romance/sex.

I own nothing, except Aiolos and Orion.

Aiolos - Means "quick-moving, nimble" in Greek.

Orion - Meaning unknown, but possibly related to Greek 'οριον_(horion)_ "boundary, limit". This is the name of a constellation, which gets its name from a legendary Greek hunter killed by a scorpion sent by Gaia.

Btw, when they're talking, for the most part they are either speaking via Infected speech or through sign language. Explanation for the sign language will be mentioned in the story.

o0o0o0o0o

The bayou was a hell of a place to find yourself, when you were a survivor. Deep water, swampland, hordes of undead eager to rip you to shreds and eat the meat off of your very bones. One of those particular undead beasties were known as the 'Hunter', vicious creatures that would pounce on you out of nowhere and proceed to savagely maim and mutilate you until you died.

Two such creatures were sitting on a rooftop of a building, hiding in the shadows, waiting for the survivors to get in range. One of them, dressed in a two-toned blue hoodie and dark blue pants, gestured to the area where the survivors would be. He grunted, quietly explaining what his companion was supposed to do. Pounce, maim, kill, and get out of the way before the survivors shot him. He would take out one of the other survivors, and the wheezing Smoker on the rooftop nearby would drag off another. It was a relatively easy concept, one that they should've had no problems executing. But...he didn't have much hope.

When the survivors were in sight, he nudged the shoulder of the red and black hoodie wearing hunter. He was given a shake of the head, and he growled, pointing quickly. The other gave him an uneasy look before finally crouching, and leaped.

Flashlights flickered as they shone up as they heard the familiar, blood-curdling scream. But he had miscalculated, he ended up jumping over them. Suddenly red-hot metal was being spit at him in all directions, and it was all he could do to make a run for it, weaving and scurrying up the walls, which only made him a bigger target in his quest to retreat back up to the rooftops.

The other hunter, still settled on the rooftop, sighed in frustration, hand smacking his forehead. He shook his head and barked at the nearby smoker, watching as one of the humans yelled as they were dragged away from the group by the long tongue. He leaped off of the roof as his companion got clear of the rain of bullets, but he was moving away from the survivors instead of towards them. His target was a rather large brutish figure that had been off a ways. He landed on its back, earning an irritated sound from the Charger. Just as he was about to reach up to fling the Hunter off of his back, the smaller creature growled, pointing in the direction of the survivors. The sound of bullets ricocheting was heard as they tried to deal with the Smoker as well as the lesser undead that had been attracted by the sounds of gunfire.

Few things could've been more terrifying than to see a Charger show up with a Hunter perched on its shoulders. The brute charged, bodies of the lesser undead flying as they were thrown out of the way, one of the survivors caught in his path and doomed to be pummeled against the ground until they met their demise. The Hunter, meanwhile, leaped off, screeching as it landed on one of the survivor's shoulders, knocking him to the ground and pushing off of him to knock the remaining human to the ground. Claws began to savagely shred through clothes and flesh, wasting no time in killing the screaming woman. The man had managed to fire off a bullet and embed it into the Hunter's shoulder before he was dragged away cursing and yelling by the wheezing, coughing infected on the rooftop nearby.

The red and black wearing figure peered over the rooftop, making a small noise. He flinched and reeled back at the roar given by his companion. One that clearly said 'You've done enough'. He whimpered, creeping back away from the roof's edge and sitting.

He wasn't looking forward to getting back home.

o0o0o0o

Home was a broken down shack near the water, the floors mostly rotten and given away to reveal the dirt that sat underneath. Piles of rocks and wooden rubble settled in parts near the openings of the building, bones were scattered, and a ratty mattress and bundle of fabric was set off in the only room that was mostly intact. A few pictures had been placed in that room as well.

The corpse of the woman was thrown out into the middle of the floor, the blue-clad hunter huffing as he crawled inside, shaking off the excess blood that clung to him.

"Orion..." The red and black wearing one began, and reeled back as his companion screamed, feeling a harsh smack against the back of his skull which made him whine in pain, hands automatically reaching up to cover it.

"Why do you have to be so useless, Aiolos?" Orion yelled. "It's all so fucking easy. All you had to do was pounce them and rip them apart, and you couldn't even do that right! We've done this over an over and you still can't do it right!" He raised his clawed hand again, ready to strike him a second time. The other backed up, ducking down to brace himself. But the hit never came. Instead the claws bunched into a fist, and he snarled out in frustration as he made his way into the 'bedroom', landing unceremoniously on the mattress.

Aiolos followed, creeping along slowly as he gauged the other's level of rage. He waited until he had settled into silent fuming before he came close, nudging his head against his shoulder. Orion glanced up with his single working eye, the orange color glowing faintly against the black sclera. "I'm sorry..." Aiolos mumbled, whining faintly as he laid down beside the other.

"How do you manage to screw up something so simple, little brother?" The older sibling asked, closing his eye as he placed his hands upon his head in frustration.

"I...just can't do it." Aiolos lacked a strong 'prey drive' that most Hunters had, and so far showed he could not properly calculate how far he needed to leap...or overshot them on purpose. Orion figured Aiolos must've still had some piece of humanity lingering in his mind that tried to prevent him from harming the uninfected. This humanity, however, didn't seem to be applied to people that were already dead. Just because he couldn't hunt, didn't mean he didn't have the same hunger that any of the infected possessed. So, it was a double-edged sword that did not work in Aiolos' favor.

Orion was his little brother's only reason for living as long as he did. He had tried to show some tough love, refusing to share what meals he had gotten. He thought that that might spur him into acting. All it did was make him weak, sluggish, and eventually unable to function well enough to be able to catch a meal. The older brother ended up breaking down and feeding him...and that's what he always ended up doing. No matter how pitiful the hunter beside him was at surviving, he was hard-wired to protect him and keep him well, even at his own expense.

That's what older brothers do for their siblings, after all.

He sighed, his eye slowly drifting to look at one of the framed pictures hanging lopsidedly on the wall. It was a picture of them, their family. It was worn and the glass that had once protected it had long since been shattered and removed. His memory of their life before the infection was scattered, sometimes hazy in certain parts...but Aiolos had always been the shy, quiet, strange type that was constantly being bullied and picked on. Orion had always protected him, kept him safe from harm when he could, was the one Aiolos could depend on..

Some things just didn't change.

He rolled onto his side, reaching out with his good arm and resting it on his sibling's side. The younger Hunter whimpered, creeping closer. The black hood was pushed down, and Orion gritted his teeth as Aiolos began to poke his fingers into the gunshot in his shoulder, digging in and picking out the bullet lodged within the muscle, flicking it off to the side. His tongue then darted into the hole, spreading a green tar-like substance that bubbled into his mouth. It would help heal it...by tomorrow it'd be nothing more than an ugly bruise.

The younger brother finally eased back, tilting his head up to look at the older sibling. Well, he couldn't see him in the conventional sense. His eyes were hidden away underneath a black blindfold, his vision damaged from fighting injuries. All he could see was colored blurs in his right, and basic shapes in his left, and it was more of a hassle to see that route than it was worth. But he could 'see' the same way all Hunters could. He lifted his hands, silently moving them in quick gestures and signs: 'Are you still mad at me?'

...'No'. Orion replied, and gave a low sound, nudging his head in the direction of the room where he had left the body, quietly allowing the other to go eat from it first. The younger practically bounced off of the bed, trotting off like a happy little dog. Orion grinned, practically picturing a wagging tail behind him. He could hear the messy gnawing and gulping, paying it no mind as he reached out, grabbing one of their pictures and pulling it close.

He stared down at the picture. His brother, himself, his mother, his father, and their pet dog. He set it down on the dirt in front of him, claws idly tracing over the facial features of the parents he could only barely recall. Their father had been deaf, which had them learn how to speak to him through the use of sign language...their mother was his caretaker. When the infection came, their father had been turned into one of the shambling undead, and their mother had been transformed into a witch. He remembered watching in horror as his father devoured their poor dog...and then he was killed by survivors, who were promptly killed by their mother. And then she sat there, weeping and sobbing as all Witches do, though she was mourning the loss of her husband. She allowed her sons to hug her before they left in search of a way out...if they returned now, there would be no doubt it was likely she'd attack them.

The memory of when they turned was lost. There was a time when it was just...darkness. Emptiness. Or it'd fade to red, he could only assume that was times when he had hunted and killed. He didn't know how long it had been before his mind had returned to his body. His brother had 'returned' only a few days before him, and had said he had behaved like any other of their kind before he regained himself.

He sighed, returning the picture to where it had been, and stretched out, crawling out of the room to steal some of their 'meal' before it was gone. Despite living in a dilapidated shack in the middle of a swamp, despite he and his brother being some strange breed of mutant undead creatures...everything seemed normal. A strange normal, admittedly. But, it was a routine, something he took comfort in. He couldn't help but smirk as his brother lifted his head, blood dripping from his jagged teeth and claws. "Maybe tomorrow we can try practicing again, Aiolos...perhaps on something smaller. Maybe frogs or birds..." He suggested.

"Maybe..." Aiolos said as he eased back, sitting down and flashing a nervous grin before resuming eating. Orion just watched him for a moment more, before twisting the arm off of the steadily disappearing body and began chewing on the exposed muscle and bone.

The frogs could croak outside, the crickets could chirp, the zombies could groan and the survivors could shoot their guns...as long as he had his brother, he didn't care where they were or what happened.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Everything Left 4 Dead related belongs to Valve and whoever else. I only own the characters. XP And I have started playing the game, so it makes it a bit easier to write.

o0o0o0o0o

"He sucks."

"Shut up, he does not. He's just..." A whine was heard as something collided with a tree. "Okay, yes, he sucks. But he'll get better. I think. I hope."

Orion watched as his brother was working with some smaller targets. Primarily the wildlife of the swamp that seemed uninfected by the Green Flu. Frogs and rabbits were among those. However, his brother wasn't doing very well with them. The Hunter's failure attracted the attention of a few Infected, who were now sitting and watching with the older brother.

A Smoker, named Ralph, had pulled up one of the rickety wooden chairs from the ruins of a building nearby. "Dude, your brother is a horrible Hunter." He stated, leaning back in the chair. He gave a ragged cough, tilting his head to the side and spitting out some sort of green-black ooze onto the ground. "If you're smart, you'd sever the ties and let the survivors take him out."

The Spitter, Melissa, who was settled on a rock and steadily burning holes into it with the glowing green-yellow acid that drooled from her mouth, glanced over at him with her beady eyes. She frowned, and hacked some of the unpleasant looking mixture at the legs of his chair which ate through it quickly and set him tumbling down to the ground.

"Ah, you bitch." Ralph grumbled.

"Not very nice of you, Ralphie. I think little Aily has potential. You just need to...push him a little more." She grinned...or, at least, it looked like she was grinning.

"What did you have in mind?" Orion asked.

o0o0o0o0o

"Brother, are you sure this is a good idea?" Aiolos nervously asked, glancing up towards the rooftops towards the small group of spectators, before looking ahead of him towards the death trap that had been laid out. There were gas tanks and net traps scattered here and there, and crude 'survivor' dummies had been set up. "How is this even supposed to work?" Orion looked over to Melissa, who grinned as she leaned over the railing and glanced down at the younger Hunter, who promptly backed up a few steps to avoid the acid dripping down from that huge mouth.

"It's simple! You jump and leap and hit the dummies! If you miss, you'll land in net traps you'll have to escape from! And if you dilly-dally too long, I'll blow up the gas tanks and start setting things ablaze!"

"YOU ACTUALLY LET HER DO THIS PLAN?" Aiolos called to his brother in exasperation.

"Well, my methods aren't working..." Orion commented.

"HOW DID YOU GUYS EVEN MAKE THIS?"

"Eh, the stuff was just lying around...not like the survivors are going to be using it." Melissa shrugged.

"Kid, haven't you heard the meaning of 'No pain, no gain'?" Ralph asked, peering over the edge. He hacked and coughed. "Besides, you won't get too badly hurt...I think. I'll stick around and save your ass if anything happens." He stuck out that incredibly long, regrowing tongue as reassurance.

"Heh...um..thanks Ralph." Aiolos replied with a nervous laugh. "So, um...when should we start this?"

"How about...now!" Melissa gave an unpleasant sound as she suddenly spat out a glob of green that hit the gas cans closest to the young hunter. Aiolos quickly leaped out of the way as flames spread over the ground, ricocheting off of a wall and continually moving up until finally dragging himself up onto the roof of a building. He looked down towards the first dummy, and eyed the net traps lingering around it. He could do this. He could do this. Now, he always overshot it...so perhaps he should aim a little bit in front of it instead to counter-balance that.

He noticed Melissa was readying to hit another gas tank, and quickly pounced again, arms outstretched and claws ready. He nearly, _nearly_ made it. Unfortunately, he didn't quite make it...and thus, yelped as net suddenly came alive and snatched him up in a tangle of netting. "Use your claws and teeth!" Orion shouted, though it wasn't hard for Aiolos to figure out the claws bit, judging by the way his arms flailed. He shredded his way free just as the gas tank erupted, and retreated once more, dodging the traps as they pulled themselves up. "You're all trying to kill me!"

"I'll bet you this arm that he doesn't get any of the dummies." Ralph said, wagging the dismembered arm of some dead guy.

"I bet he'll manage to get one. It might be on accident, but he'll get one." Melissa replied, her long nailed hand tucking underneath what little of a chin she had. "What do you think, Orion?"

"I'm not going to get my hopes up, here."

They watched as Aiolos made near-hits, trying his damnedest to avoid getting burned. With each unsuccessful attack and burn he sustained, the angrier and more frustrated he would get. Until finally, he screamed as he pounced, finally slamming into the crude dummy and knocking it to the ground, clawing and biting, dead grass and plants and fabric flying in all directions.

"See, told you he'd get one. The very last one." Melissa said, and heard Ralph give a wheezy sigh as he forked over the limb. "Hey, Aily! You finally got one!"

It seemed to snap him out of it, and he froze, spitting out fabric in his mouth and looking back towards the group. "Um...I did?" He looked down and hopped off of what remained of the dummy. "Oh, I guess I did!"

"How'd you do that?" Orion inquired.

"Oh, I did what any survivor does to any of us special ones...I made 'im angry."

o0o0o0o0o

"It seems like Melissa had the right method after all." Orion commented as they sat by a stream that cut through the drier parts of the swamp. He was currently in the process of tending to his younger brother's burns. They weren't serious, but it was better to get them healed and out of the way. At the same time, they were peeling off their grimy hoodies and washing them in the water, using the rocks to help get the worst of the blood and dirt out of them. They had become irritating to wear, the fabric stiff and uncomfortable to wear.

Scars from bullet wounds, blades, teeth and claws littered both of their bodies. Aiolos had more than his brother, between bullying and missing survivors. He stared at the water, watching the worst of the dirt his hoodie contained drip down from the rocks and float on down the stream. "Did I do alright?"

"Well...you could've done better." There was a look of disappointment on the younger Hunter's face, until he felt an arm wrap about his shoulders. "But it's a start. Melissa's right, you've got potential. I just have to make sure to get you pissed before we go after survivors." Orion gave a lop-sided grin, before pulling away to wring out his dual-blue hoodie and rinse off the blood on his body.

"Do you remember the last time we had a real shower or bath?" Aiolos asked.

"A year? I don't even know if we could figure out how to go about doing it anymore." The simple things people took for granted was lost when they became infected. There was no need to use the bathroom, their bodies able to burn everything they swallowed to use as energy, if the 'green flu' didn't decide to make them purge whatever they had in their stomachs. Smells didn't bother them, so bathing wasn't as much of a necessity. And they had to either find their own ways to keep their minds entertained -that didn't involve televisions or electronics-, otherwise they had to sleep. "I mean, you see what issues we have opening doors."

Aiolos laughed. "I know how to open a door. I think everyone is so eager to get to the survivors on the other side they don't think to simply open the door. Except the common ones...they're just stupid."

"I'll agree with you there." The older sibling laughed, and quieted after a few moments, glancing around for something to do. The light-hearted mood made him decide, and he waited until the younger sibling was focused on cleaning his clothes until he crouched, his only warning being a low growl before he pounced, tackling his sibling. They yelped, laughed and made noises similar to barks as they tumbled and rolled. They attempted to pin each other, only for the other to squirm from their grasp and take off running, scrambling up the decaying buildings or trees and leaping off to tumble below...or, if they were unlucky, land in the stream and have to flail and complain until they dragged themselves back up to land.

"They're like puppies!" Melissa said as she watched the sight from afar. "Big zombie-puppies!"

"Yeah, whoop-de-doo." Ralph said, rolling his eye, and felt the Spitter just smack him in the shoulder. "Let's go look around, see if there's anything to scrounge up. Let the 'puppies' play." He coughed, smoke puffing out of his mouth as he turned, beginning to walk off towards one of the safe houses. "By the way, have you seen Jack, lately?"

"Oh, Jack? Jockey guy? No, I haven't. Last I saw him, he was at the general store, reading some magazine called 'MAD' and giggling like mad." Melissa shrugged.

"Huh...oh well, I'm sure he'll turn up." Just about that time, wild laughter was heard and Ralph stumbled forward as weight was thrown onto his back.

"HiRalphdidyoumissme?Wherearewegoing?" The hyper, barely comprehensible voice of the hunched back man clinging to his head and shoulders was heard. Ralph just stumbled, one of his other tongues trying to wrench the little man off of his back.

"Goddamn it, Jack! GET OFF OF ME!" And Melissa's squealing, high-pitched laughter could be heard as she watched the Smoker trip and fall face-first on the ground.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Only the characters themselves belong to me. Everything else belongs to their respective owners.

Hunter Pups (c) perpetualfrustration on Deviantart

o0o0o0o0o0o

It had been a peaceful, uneventful week. That might've been because it was too hot to do anything. The summer heat combined with the humidity of the swamp made for very unforgiving weather. Survivors were smart enough to avoid the place like the plague if they could help it, and the infected were stuck either trying to hunt animals or picking from any festering corpses they could find. The smell of decomposing flesh was powerful...the heat was causing hell for everyone, and it was why the Hunter brothers were very grateful they had picked a home outside of town and was close to the water.

"It's so hot..." Aiolos whined, hiding in the shade of the nearby trees, his hoodie thrown to the side and his arms submerged in the water.

"I know. It's horrible." Orion grunted, doing the same as his brother and laying beside him. He felt his brother's cheek gently rest against his shoulder. Aiolos always did that when he was too hot. Not enough contact to get bothered by body heat, but enough to say 'I'm hot and miserable, make me feel better'. He never had handled heat well, even before the infection...Orion moved his arms, splashing his younger sibling in an attempt to cool him down. It seemed to work, judging by the sigh he received.

"What are we going to do? We need to look for food soon..."

"Wait until tonight. It'll cool down enough for us to get moving." The older brother mumbled. "Until then...we wait, and sleep." He said as he lowered his head, and he heard his brother sigh before he settled down as well, head still resting against his shoulder. He normally didn't keep the contact once he had been cooled in some way. But, Orion didn't mind...it felt kind of nice, in a way. He ever-so-slightly tilted his head, briefly nudging his sibling's head before laying his head down and settling into a hazy sleep.

o0o0o0o0o

"Humidity is killing me."

"Quit whining, Aiolos, and keep moving. Keep an eye out for anything that looks edible."

"But it's still hot and it's all wet." Aiolos complained, walking behind his brother, looking at the ghost town around them. Most of the horde had scattered and ventured deeper into the swamp to look for survivors or food, doing what they could while it was cooler. Ralph, Jack and Melissa were among those who had spread out. They'd come stumbling back once the sun started to peak over the horizon. That was why the two brothers had to scavenge what they could, when they could.

They rummaged through bins and climbed up shelves, scaled buildings...and would drag what little they found to the middle of town and drop it into a pile.

Aiolos had been searching through yards and stopped at a shed when he heard crying. Faint, soft, and different from the signature sobbing of a Witch. He paused, and lowered into a crouch, slinking along the ground and nearing the shed, and nudged the door open. He was met with the sight of a deceased Hunter, ultimately killed by wounds inflicted by some survivor's shotgun. The body had been there awhile, and his nose wrinkled at the smell of decomposition, made ten times worse by the summer heat. The smell of rotting Infected corpses was different than that of non-infected. It was unpleasant, and why those in the horde who were alive would try to throw said corpses off in the outskirts of the town so they wouldn't have to deal with them as much.

He crept forward, further into the shed. So, if the Hunter was dead, what was making that noise? His answer was a small, fluffy ball curled up against the leg of the body. There were a few of them, but only this one moved, shivering and shaking. He reached out, and hesitantly poked it. He heard it give a startled whimper, but it was too weak to really move. "Hmm?" He gently pushed it with his hands, and revealed what it actually was.

A Hunter pup. Tiny and still adorned in the protective fur. It looked up towards him, barely even able to lift its head. Aiolos was silent for a moment, before he seemed to move on instinct. He treated the little pup as though it was made of glass, scooping it up and holding it against his chest, tucked in the fold of his arm. "Shh, it's okay...it'll be okay." He gently spoke to it as he rose to his feet, wheeled around and began to move out of the shed. He offered his fingers to the little creature, and winced as one of the digits immediately had little needle teeth breaking the skin, the blood eagerly being slurped up noisily. The Hunter brother sighed, slowing to a stop by the house and leaning against the wall, watching as the tiny white puffball in hand drank to his little heart's content. It looked young, too young to be able to actually eat solid food. The blood of its parent had dried and grown old, and that meant it hadn't fed for some time.  
He was patient, though, waiting until it finally released its grip on his fingers before he began moving again. "Orion? Orion!" He called.

"What?"

"Come here a second." Orion leaped down from the rooftops, wondering what on earth his brother could want. But as soon as he saw the little white-furred being, he immediately shook his head.

"Oh, nuh-uh, we are not keeping it. It's hard enough to scrape up enough food for us, having another mouth to feed is just going to make it worse-"

"Oh come on! His parent's dead, his littermates are dead, and he's going to die to without someone to take care of him." Aiolos looked down at the little figure in his arms, and smiled softly. " There's no other hunters we can pawn him off to, and none of the other Specials can take care of him. I'll take care of him by myself, if I have to."

"You're not going to let me say no, are you?"

"Nope."

"Fine. But he's primarily your responsibility. I already have to take care of you, I don't need to be worrying about taking care of that one, either." Orion stated, holding his hands up in a gesture that clearly stated he wasn't going to take the responsibility.

"Okay then." Aiolos said as he rubbed the little belly of the creature. "Hear that, Rolan? You get to stay with us." The smaller being made a trilling sound, similar to a purr.

"Rolan?"

"It means 'Little seal'. He kind of reminds me of a baby seal. Just with sharp claws and teeth." Orion watched the two of the interact, and felt the faintest of feelings bubble in his chest as the scene went on. He figured it just had to be from how cute his brother and 'Rolan' were. He shook it off.

"Well, let's get the little seal and what we've managed to collect and bring them back home. I suppose it'll be enough to tide us over for a day or two." Aiolos gently cooed as he lifted the pup, allowing it to climb into his hood, clinging to the back of his neck. Though he seemed a bit stronger with food in him, the hood would be the safety net and make sure he didn't fall. With that, his hands were free to gather some of the food, and they quietly trekked back to the dilapidated shack. They ate, and Aiolos settled down to sleep. Orion waved him off, saying he'd join him in a little while. Ronan was snuggled against his arm, snoring and little limbs twitching occasionally as he dreamed.

Orion sat on Aiolos' other side, looking down at his younger sibling. He carefully hooked a finger around the edge of the other's hood and pulled it down, his claws raking through the tangled brown locks. The sibling made a content noise, shoulders falling slack as he slept. Orion just grinned, sitting there for awhile, content to just sit there and mess with his brother's hair. It was something he had always done when they were little when his little brother had trouble sleeping, particularly during storms. He still had a fear of storms, particularly the thunder.

He sighed after awhile, crawling and circling around until he collapsed onto the mattress, the springs creaking unhappily from the sudden weight flopped upon them. "'Night, Aiolos." He mumbled, curled up against his brother's side. Even as the faint rumble of thunder boomed in the distance, nothing disturbed the small group from the sleep.

At least till the morning, when they'd find Rolan backed against Aiolos' side, fur raised and hissing at the uninvited Jack. The jockey would laugh at the pup as it swiped at him, and ignored the tired grumblings of the hunter brothers.

"God damn it, Jack! Why don't you ever wait until we're awake before you visit?" And the jockey would giggle as Orion would threw objects at him, chasing him away for a few hours more.


	4. Chapter 4

There was an issue when it came to hot weather and a lack of rain. There was the issues of drought...and with drought, came fires.

It had erupted a few weeks after little Ronan had become a new addition to the brothers' routine. The swamp's waters had fallen, the humidity usually present was gone...which meant it spread quickly.

Orion had just enough time to gather their family photos before he dragged his brother out of their shack as fire came knocking at their door. The little white pup clung to his younger sibling's neck, giving inhuman whimpers and cries as he was jostled with each leap or disoriented with each change of angle as the brothers climbed and moved. The horde that was not quick -or smart- enough to escape the blaze were consumed by the flames. If they did manage, then they had another obstacle to overcome: Survivors. They were just as eager to escape, and would gladly riddle you with bullets to make sure you didn't make it out.

"Son of a bitch!" Orion yelled as the limbs of trees broke off around them, embers biting at their skin and the heat prickling as it closed in. They just needed to make it to the coast. They leaped up onto the houses that perched up above the water on supports, darting across the wooden walkways to get away from the worst of the flames.

Everything seemed to be in slow motion. Every sound was distorted, from the crackle of fire as it burned sounding like a low, rumbling growl...to the creak and crack of one of the walkway's support beams as it snapped, that sounded like someone screaming before they were killed. The wooden path lifted above the the flames that burned below twisted, and with the sudden shift the hunter pup was jarred from his safe zone, and Aiolos quickly moved, his clawed hand grabbing the scruff of fur on the pup's neck, though not without following him off the edge of the path. "Aiolos!" Orion yelled, trying to dive to grab his sibling, though watched in horror as he couldn't clench onto his sibling's hand fast enough before it slid from his grasp.

They would've surely fallen into the flames that laid waste to everything beneath them...until something slimy and decidedly unpleasant suddenly constricted around Aiolos' middle and yanked him back, away from his and Ronan's demise. It reeled him up like a fishing pole, and Orion's gaze glanced back quickly to find that the savior had been none other than Ralph. The Smoker had been attempting to escape like everyone else, and thank god he was there when they needed him. He severed his tongue, finding no time in withdrawing it completely. "Move it, you damn Hunters, or I'm going to let the fire barbecue your asses!" The urgency was enough to get them moving again, bolting...

It felt like they had been running forever. Retreating further and further from the wildfire. Orion's eye prickled and burned after all the light it had endured from the flames. He looked tiredly to his companions.

They had managed to meet up with Jack and Melissa. Jack's arm was burnt pretty badly, and the Jockey was favoring that arm, hugging it close to his chest. Melissa had gotten off pretty light, just a few scrapes and grazes. Ralph was fine, though he grumbled about how the fire had scorched the bottom of his jacket. Little Ronan was curled up in the Smoker's pocket, whimpering softly in his sleep. His white fur was tainted grey by smoke, soot and ash, and besides being exhausted and a little sore from being jostled about, he was alright.

He felt his brother murmur something against his neck, though he wasn't sure what he had said. The younger Hunter had injured his leg during their escape, and of course, Orion chose to carry him, even while Aiolos complained about it. Now his sibling was too tired to keep arguing over being carried, and dealt with the piggyback, arms wrapped tight around his neck and legs locked around his waist as best as he could manage with his hurt leg.

"So now what are we going to do?" Melissa asked, squinting as she looked off in the distance, trying to spot any of the horde. It felt safer to gather in a group. The larger the numbers, the safer they were...they weren't sure how many had managed to make it out of the fire, and how far ahead or behind they were of their small rag-tag group. Even the common infected would be a welcome sight right now. But they were also keeping an eye out for survivors. They were injured and tired, and even though any non-infected would probably be as bad off as they were, the odds were not stacked in the infected's favor.

"Follow the water. It'll lead us to New Orleans. We can settle there...after that, not sure what we'll do." Ralph replied.

They took shelter in an old cabin just off the shore. The door within the house leading down to it was its entrance, and the door leading to the outside from it was its exit. It was far from the inferno that raged on, and seemed a welcome, safe place to sleep after such tiring events. They all took to their own places. Melissa and Jack settled in the basement, choosing a place where Melissa's acid wasn't going to cause as much harm to the building. Ralph called the couch in the living room his bed for the night, and Ronan seemed to call Ralph his bed. "Damn it...Orion, Aiolos- ah, forget it." The Smoker gave a wheezy, hacking cough and glanced down at the little pup curled up on his chest, purring like a little kitten. He sighed, a hand reaching up to cup over the pup's back and keep him from rolling off during the night, and they both settled down for sleep.

The two brothers took to the bedroom, and Orion peeled his sibling off of his back and deposited him onto the mattress. Aiolos mumbled tiredly, tugging at his hoodie until he pulled it over his head, and tossed it off to the side and then happily sunk into the mattress. "Let me take a better look at your leg, see how bad you hurt it." The older brother spoke as he sat on the edge of the bed. Aiolos winced as the injured leg was lifted and examined. Fingers gently prodded at the skin, feeling for anything that might've been broken. "It doesn't feel like anything's broken." He declared after a few minutes of feeling. "I'm guessing your ankle's probably sprained...and judging from the bruising I'm seeing so far, you're going to have one hell of a giant bruise smack dab on your shin...you got pretty lucky."

"Yeah, I noticed that I've been pretty lucky tonight...what with Ralph being around to save me and Ronan from getting burnt to a crisp and then the whole injury thing." He gave a small laugh and smiled as Orion abandoned his leg and stood to remove his own soot-covered hoodie and kick off what remained of his shoes so he could climb in beside his sibling. The pictures he had saved from their previous shack of a home were set on the nightstand beside him. Aiolos pulled off the fabric around his eyes, exposing steel blue eyes, flecked with the faintest hints of silver and black. Most of his right had been tainted a silvery color, clouded over from damage done by the scraps he had gotten into with other infected, leaving it mostly blind to the world. His left had a fainter screen of silver or it, a bit better off in terms of sight so that he could make out some things. "Thanks for carrying me, by the way."

"No problem...s'what big brothers are supposed to do." Orion felt the other scoot closer, cuddling up against him as he had always done. However, he wasn't quite sure why the odd little feeling he had had before seemed to creep back up now, making the blood-pumping organ in his chest pick up its pace.

Aiolos yawned, exposing those sharp teeth of his for a moment before he they were hidden from view again. "What are we going to do when we get to New Orleans?"

"Do the same thing we've always done. Try to survive." Orion replied, and placed a small, chaste kiss upon the other's forehead. "Get some sleep, little brother. We're going to need all the energy we can get tomorrow."

Aiolos gave a drowsy grin as he glanced up at his brother, before his eyes closed and his head came to rest against the other's chest. "Mm'kay...you're a good big brother, y'know..." He slurred.

"You're a good little brother." Orion replied as he closed his eye. It opened, however, as Aiolos commented.

"Your heart's beating faster than normal..."

"It's...I'm just anxious about getting to the city tomorrow." He didn't like to lie to Aiolos. But, he had learned to be good at lying to his sibling. The younger brother just nodded, apparently too tired to question further.

"Mm'kay...I'm going to sleep now...'night." And he was out like a light. Orion just smiled in amusement, and settled down, drifting off to sleep for the night...he could worry about their journey and what would happen once they got to the city in the morning.


End file.
